Friday Final Ratings: PyeongChang Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC Provides TV’s Most Dominant Friday versus Other Broadcast Nets in People Meter History

NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony for the PyeongChang Olympics posted a Total Audience Delivery average of 28.3 million viewers to rank as the most-watched Friday night program on any network since the 2014 Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony (31.7 million viewers, Feb. 7, 2014), according to live plus same day fast national data released Saturday by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

NBC’s 14.7/27 primetime household rating for the Opening Ceremony outperformed by 167 percent the combined rating of ABC, CBS and Fox for the night (5.5), to rank as the most-dominant Friday in People Meter History (Sept.-May TV season, since Sept. 1987).

The NBC television viewership of 27.8 million for the Opening Ceremony marks the largest audience on a Friday night in four years, a stretch that included four Friday World Series games, two NBA Finals games, three nights of 2016 Rio Olympics coverage, and two nights of the Sochi Olympics.

Opening Ceremony viewership on NBC peaked at 31.5 million from 9-9:15 p.m. ET, as Team USA entered during the Parade of Nations.

In addition, Friday night’s Total Audience Delivery topped by 6 percent the 2016 Rio Opening Ceremony (26.7 million TAD). The West Coast primetime telecast is included in metrics.

What follows are the Live + Same Day rating results for the night’s select cable telecasts on Friday, February 9 (with the night’s cable ranks according to total viewers and adults 18-49 in parentheses):

Douglas Pucci (a.k.a. “Son of the Bronx”) has worked with Mr. Berman for more than a decade. A Bronx native, NYU graduate and once-intern for VH1's "Pop Up Video," Pucci went on to design, build and maintain websites for various non-profit organizations in his hometown of New York City. He also contributes to the sports website Awful Announcing.